The Great British Bump-Off #1: The Proof is in the Pudding

The Great British Bump-Off brings together cozy Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries and The Great British Bake-Off (GBBO for short, or The Great British Baking Show for American viewers): a combination so seemingly obvious that it’s a wonder it’s never been done and readers will be delighted someone finally has. In a medium dominated by superhero stories, cozy murder mysteries and stories about baking can both be a novelty and a comic that combines the two genres even more so—the comic more than delivers on its central premise and does so with buckets of humor and charm. Bump-Off’s writer John Allison, cartoonist Max Sarin, and letterer Jim Campbell previously worked together on the critically-acclaimed series Giant Days, working together like a well-oiled machine. The colorist, Sammy Borras, is a beautiful addition. 

The murder mystery at the center of The Great British Bump-Off is its least developed element thus far, so it’s difficult to tell how well it will hang together. There are crumbs of a good mystery here, but the bulk of the issue is character-driven. As anyone familiar with Giant Days and its three protagonists might expect, Bump-Off’s central trio – Shauna, Jill, and Sunil – are instantly endearing. Allison’s side-splitting dialogue and Sarin’s lively artwork make the characters almost leap off the page. As with GBBO, Bump-Off – set at a television baking competition called UK Baking Tent – has a similarly hefty cast. Nonetheless, Sarin manages to make every character’s design feel distinct. Early on, there’s also a group shot showing all twelve bakers with their names and day jobs, which is extremely helpful, as is putting their first initials on all of their aprons. 

Bump-Off’s nods to its namesake go far beyond the punny title. Borras’ base color palette of beiges, soft blues, and summer greens scream GBBO, while the simplified cel-shading and splashes of bright pinks, greens, and purples make Sarin’s artwork pop. Jill Thompson’s variant cover, which also acts as an image on the opening page, depicts a bloody chocolate cake with a skull in the middle, evoking both the watercolor cake illustrations in Bake-Off and cozy murder mystery book covers. The comic’s bunting-strewn tent setting is unmistakably Bake-Off’s, but the comic’s judges are the real cherry on top of this satirical cake. One judge, a gruff, bearded veteran named Pete Holyrood, is Bake-Off’s judge Paul Hollywood cranked up to 11. The comic’s second judge is Fanny Cradock, a celebrity cook so old that she’s been dead since 1994 – a nod to both of Bake-Off’s female judges (Mary Berry and her replacement Pru Leith) being in their 80s. For anyone familiar with Bake-Off, this series is a riot so far.